Downtown Redwood City property owners to vote on creating tax district

By Bonnie Eslinger

Daily News Staff Writer

Posted:
06/10/2014 08:11:50 PM PDT

Updated:
06/11/2014 12:22:30 AM PDT

Downtown Redwood City property owners this week will start receiving election ballots asking them to pay new taxes for special services.

The City Council on Monday authorized the election -- a step that's required to create a "community benefit improvement district." If enough property owners vote for a district, the city expects to pick up almost $800,000 a year in additional taxes to spend on such downtown improvements as sidewalk cleanups, parking management and publicity.

To get to this point, the city had to secure petition signatures from owners of properties that together represent more than 30 percent of the total assessment values in the proposed district.

Sean Brooks, the city's economic development manager, told the council that about 30 to 35 property owners account for that percentage, excluding city and county government.

Councilman John Seybert applauded the landowners who signed petitions for "putting the burden upon themselves to tax themselves, to move this community forward."

The election ballots must be returned by July 28. Brooks said the votes will be weighted based on three factors: lot sizes, buildings and street frontage. The assessments will be levied if 50 percent of the weighted ballots favor the benefit district.

If approved, the taxes could be collected by August and the enhanced downtown services could kick in by the following spring, Brooks said. The money would be managed by an organization made up primarily of property owners that pay into the district.

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Mayor Jeffrey Gee noted that the city unsuccessfully tried before to get downtown property owners to agree to the special taxes.

"Everyone's to be commended for the very hard work, but the journey's not done yet and we have some more to go," Gee said. "Hopefully come September we can have a celebration."